Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer: where's the Wheat Line?

I joke that there's a "Blood Line" around Philadelphia. Outside the Blood Line in Pennsylvania, people hunt and fish as a matter of course; it's a sport, it's cultural, it's fun. Inside the Blood Line, people are appalled at the thought of hunting, Bambi killers and such, and fishing is borderline (probably because Hemingway did it, or something).

I think there must be a Wheat Line in America, and I blame Widmer. Widmer Hefeweizen, to be exact. Way back in the mists of microbrewing, the Widmers started brewing an unfiltered wheat beer with a relatively clean altbier yeast, and they called it Hefeweizen, the German word for an unfiltered wheat beer. Not a big deal, only the German brewing tradition already had a well-established unfiltered wheat beer that was brewed with a special top-fermenting yeast that produced familiar flavors of banana, clove, plum, and smoke.

Unfortunately, Widmer's name muddied the waters in the American craft beer market. "Hefeweizen" came to be the tag for their clean-tasting (that's a euphemism for "bland") unfiltered wheat ale instead of the more robustly-flavored (that's a euphemism for "good") German-type hefes that folks like Stoudt's and Victory were making. Widmer was right in the middle of the booming PNW craft market, and soon they had competitors -- Redhook, Pyramid, and others -- all making "Hefeweizen."

Well, somewhere about the Mississippi-Missouri River line, the Wheat Line runs. West of it, it's "American Hefe," and east of it, it's "The Proper Stuff." Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer is west of the line. I give them a tip of the hat, thought, for calling it "Unfiltered Wheat," so let's take it on its merits.

First, it's wicked fresh-smelling. It's like being in a brewery where the fresh beer pours right from the tap; nice job on the packaging. There's a wheaty/fruity/slightly salty tang to it, almost like apricot-scented Play-Doh. Flavor is pretty quick, but not light; there's a slip of bitterness there, and nothing cloying. This is a good cold summer beer, no doubt quite welcome in hot KC summers.

Boulevard does nice work, and I look forward to trying some of their Smokestack series later this year.

Hop Hound Amber Wheat

Turbid amber color, nice head of creamy foam, bread-fresh aroma with a lightly citrus character to it. Tangy, refreshing, medium body, a real cut to it, spicy/lemony flavor and, long after the beer last moves down the throat, a bitter pull in the back of the throat.

If this were any other kind of beer than an American wheat, I'd cry foul on naming it Hop Hound. Because folks: it ain't that hoppy. But for what is widely, sadly, called "hefeweizen" in the U.S. (particularly in the West, something they just gotta answer for), this is, indeed, on the hoppy end of the scale. Kinda brings back memories of Wild Goose Spring Wheat, although that had a whole different mouthfeel to it, thanks to the English ale brewing.

So... yeah, it's the new Michelob spring seasonal. At 5.3% ABV. And it's really got yeast in there (although the neck label only refers to it as "what's left," and while it's technically not all yeast...it's pretty much yeast), quite a bit of it. The dog thing seems goofy. But it's not a bad beer at all for the category.

Get your flaying knives out: I liked another ABIB product. Damn me, I hate me when I do that. FWIW, I did see a sixpack of Wild Blue last week (in Philly, during Philly Beer Week!) and I still hate that syrupy shit, so there you go.

At Least They Spelled My Name Right

I was driving down to Philly this morning, headed for the Grey Lodge to host my wheat beer breakfast event, when I heard a Philly Beer Week report on KYW misquote the Philly Beer Week slogan as "America's Best Drinking City" and refer to Joe Sixpack as "Don Nichols." I did not drive off the road, but I did groan.

So I was able to take this bullshit in stride, an AP story that hit the Houston Chronicle this morning:

Drunk by noon? Perfectly acceptable in Philly

In many places, drinking before noon is something to hide. Not in Philadelphia. The second annual Philly Beer Week has eight scheduled beer-drinking events before noon on Saturday.
For example, an event called "Lew Bryson's Wheat Beer Breakfast of Champions" begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at a tavern in Philadelphia's Tacony neighborhood. Later in the morning, there's an event called "Kegs and Eggs" at an Irish pub in the Old City historic district.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter used a ceremonial mallet dubbed the "Hammer of Glory" to kick off the event Friday night. He used it to open a keg [of] Philadelphia-brewed Yards ESA. Earlier Friday, the mallet was carried Olympic-torch-style through various Philadelphia neighborhoods. Hundreds of other events are planned through March 15.

Just another idiot who can't tell the difference between "drinking" and "drunk," which I'd guess says more about them than about us. Anyway...at least they spelled my name right. As of this evening, it appeared that the Chronic was the only paper that had picked up the story...guess newspaper editors aren't that stupid after all. Smarter than the editors at the AP, anyway.